UPDATE July 15, 2012: On Saturday I noted that the following responses from Benjamin H. Nuvamsa and Rosanda Suetopka Thayer focused on Micah Loma’omvaya’s (Hopi Chief of Staff) role in distributing last week’s Hopi Tribe LCR Settlement Agreement “Fact Sheet“. I now realize that their comments refer to a Press Release that the Hopi Tribe issued on July 12 surrounding Rosanda Suetopka Thayer’s efforts to remove Chairman Leroy Shingoitewa from office. Click here for a copy of the Press Release. I apologize for the confusion.

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Benjamin H. Nuvamsa, July 13, 2012

There seems to be certain amount of credence placed recently by the local news media on comments, quotes, etc. from staff (political appointees) other than directly from the Hopi tribal chairman Leroy Shingoitewa, particularly concerning the current water rights debate. Be advised that we do not place any credence or credibility on comments made by Shingoitewa’s staff, like comments by Micah Lomaomvaya. Micah is not tribal chairman, vice chairman; and therefore has no authority to speak on behalf of the Hopi Tribe. He has no authority to be issuing press releases, or making comments on any matter in the papers. Those authorities are vested in the tribal chairman. Those authorities and protocols are similar to the Office of the President of the United States. We do not see any press releases, nor comments coming out of Vice Chairman Honanie’s office, because he understands and respects the proper delegations of authority. He understands the protocols and when it is an appropriate time to issue statements on behalf of his office, or on behalf of the tribe. Thank you.

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Rosanda Suetopka Thayer, July 13, 2012

“Its truly unfortunate and completely unprofessional that Micah Loma’omvaya, chief of staff for Mr. Shingoitewa, without formal Hopi Council authorization to release such a ill-informed press statement regarding the Hopi and Tewa grassroots movement to remove Shingoitewa for serious neglect of duty.

Only the Hopi Tribal Council through formal action or the Hopi chairman with council authorization can speak on behalf of the tribe, not a politically appointed staff member like Loma’omvaya.

For me personally, Loma’omvaya’s release shows the level of paranoia, intimidation and lack of signature accountability, that Shingoitewa has created and fosters at the Hopi Tribe against anyone who opposes him, including all members of the media, tribal or non-tribal.

This has been evidenced by Shingoitewa’s refusal to allow reporters into local publicly posted Hopi council meetings over his past two years in office including the Hopi Tribes’ own newspaper, the Hopi Tutuveni, which is the only local and free news medium available to Hopi community members for public information.

No community member, enrolled or un-enrolled is safe from Shingoitewa and his supporters, especially after such a heated public battle where clearly the Hopi and Tewa people did not support Shingoitewa’s LCR settlement proposal and in which Shingoitewa continues to try and re-visit an already dead tribal water issue.

The “Shingoitewa Removal” public meeting slated for Saturday, July 14th at the First Mesa Consolidated villages community will still move forward with the full open support of Hopis and Tewas who want Shingoitewa removed from office for serious neglect of duty.”

In a move that was predicted since last Friday, June 15th at the public council meeting at the Village of Hotevilla by Hopi community members, Hopi traditional leadership and Hopi village board representatives after Hopi Chairman LeRoy Shingoitewa made the open public statement that “Its not over. I plan on bringing this settlement issue back up in council and I do plan on getting approval.”

Hopi Chairman LeRoy Shingoitewa and his Water and Energy Team Chairman George Mase, brought their own separate, opposing action item No. H-073-2012 to the Council floor on Thursday morning at the Hopi Council chambers on June 21st for a vote that has now approved and will endorse the proposed water rights agreement to the Little Colorado River for the Hopi Tribe.

The Shingoitewa-Mase approval on Thursday, June 21st comes despite heated public objections and formal
village proclamations against both the SB2109 and the settlement agreement for the LCR from every single Hopi village but Sipaulovi on Second Mesa.

Only one village endorsed the settlement.

Sipaulovi Village Board President, Kim Secakuku read into record, their village approval of the settlement act on Thursday at the Hopi Council chambers before the vote was taken.

Eleven of the twelve Hopi villages voiced their opposition on paper and several made formal in-person presentations to the Hopi council last week on June 15th against any more Hopi tribal government negotiation, waiver of water rights or sovereign water power in regards to the Little Colorado River water settlement and SB 2109 on Hopi’s behalf.

Last week’s action item sponsored by Ben Nuvamsa, Ivan Sidney, Vernon Masayesva all former Hopi Chairmen and four former Hopi Vice Chairmen, Clifford Qotsaquahu, Phillip Quochytewa, Col. Caleb Johnson and Todd Honyaoma had the endorsement signature of current Hopi Vice Chairman Herman Honanie. Their eight signature joint resolution clearly had overwhelming Hopi public support which was witnessed by the huge public crowd that attended the Hotevilla council session.

The Nuvamsa group won their first round regarding the water settlement issue last week with a vote of eleven in their favor and four against. Many Hopis saw this vote as a victory for Hopi people and their sovereign rights to their water.

But this weeks’ new vote on the Mase action item which is in direct opposition of what was approved only a little over a week ago, was seven (7) to seven (7) with Shingoitewa breaking the tie, making it a final vote of eight (8) in favor and seven (7) against the settlement agreement for the LCR.

To date, the Nuvamsa resolution approved and voted on last week, Friday the 15th has not been signed off by the Hopi Chairman or the Tribal Council Secretary Martha Mase, which is in direct violation of constitutional duties outlined for tribal officers once a resolution has been approved.

Nuvamsa tried in vain over the past week to get a final formal signed approved copy of his groups’ resolution but as of Friday the 22nd, it could not be found at the Hopi Tribal executive offices.

Chairman LeRoy Shingoitewa then broke the tie vote and cast his vote for approving the settlement making it a very slim win by an 8 to 7 final tally.

A large part of what makes this newest Hopi Council vote to approve the settlement is not just the fact that Hopi Chairman Shingoitewa as well as George Mase, who serves as Water and Energy Team Chair have made continuous public statements in news media that “we will not take any vote or make any decisions on the settlement until we have answered all questions and conferred with all villages on this topic” but that public disclosure is far from over.

Several villages are still waiting to have tribal materials presented at their villages and as more and more questions have been posed to the Hopi Chair Shingoitewa via letter and email, no answers have been provided.

Former Hopi Chairman Ivan Sidney said, “As an example, just one of the biggest problems with what Shingoitewa and Mase did on June 21st is that they failed to rescind the other resolution that the Hopi Council approved last week.
You can’t have two completely conflicting resolutions especially with something like this that has so much impact on the tribe’s most important natural resource, water. Our grassroots Hopi water groups’ resolution they approved last Friday is still intact and valid. This just shows that our own Hopi Council doesn’t have a clue about policy development and control. Their slowness in grasping what they have done really makes you question how well do they really understand what this water bill and agreement really means….if they can’t even correct a simple tribal council resolution process, are they really the ones who should be voting on something this important? I think not. Chairman Shingoitewa is in total defiance of the will of the the Hopi people. I am shocked that we are at this point in Hopi history and government, where we are watching and experiencing subversive tactics by our own chairman and council against our people over a “sacred resource” like this.”

Former Hopi Tribal Chairman Ben Nuvamsa said, “This action by Shingoitewa and Mase is just another example of their total disrespect for their own people. Shingoitewa does not respect the traditional powers of our villages. Shingoitewa was elected to serve and represent the wishes of the Hopi people. Shingoitewa’s action today will only be temporary because the Hopi will and shall have the final say. This is how it should be. Shingoitewa has clearly violated the Hopi constitution because he is not delegated the power by the villages to waive over sovereign rights to water. He has now also violated the resolution voted on and approved last week, so he is clearly in “neglect of duty.” It will be the Hopi people who will hold him accountable. Shingoitewa was not raised in the Hopi way, we all know this. He does not understand what water means to us, our way of life, our Hopi culture. Shingoitewa will go down in history as the chairman who not only tried to abolish our water rights but last year, he tried to abolish our traditional village powers with his attempt to approve Draft 24A. Shingoitewa has done a lot of harm to our people and has lost all Hopi public faith in his ability to lead.”

“The Hopi Council on June 21, 2012 by motion and majority vote, approved Resolution H-073-2012. By passage of this resolution, the Hopi Council endorses the proposed settlement of its claims to the Little Colorado River and its sources, as provided in the March 8, 2012 settlement agreement proposal, such endorsement shall not extend to any modification required to conform the settlement to the United States Senate Bill 2109 or any other enactment of the settlement by the U.S. Congress.”

Rosanda Suetopka Thayer of the Navajo-Hopi Observer (NHO) recently reported that in addition to the leadership at Hotevilla, village leaders at Bacavi and now Shungopavi have officially notified Chairman LeRoy Shingoitewa and the Hopi Tribal Council of their disapproval of SB 2109. Momentum against SB 2109 is building back home, and I anticipate similar actions by other villages in the near future. See Thayer’s articles in the NHO:

The following story by Rosanda Suetopka Thayer will be published soon in various newspapers. News of Hotevilla’s formal rejection of SB 2109 is very significant and I hope that other villages will make similar statements in the near future. The official Hotevilla Proclamation and Resolution on SB 2109 is included at the end of this post. PLEASE DISTRIBUTE WIDELY.

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Village of Hotevilla formally rejects SB 2109

Historical, unprecedented move by ” Hopi traditional” village a first in dissaproving LCR settlement

Story by Rosanda Suetopka Thayer

Exercising its aboriginal sovereignty rights, the “traditional” village of Hotevilla, 3rd Mesa has formally rejected the Hopi tribal approval of SB 2109, making it the first of 12 villages located on the Hopi reservation to formally notify the Hopi Tribal Council of its dissaproval of any further action or legislative movement on its village behalf.

In a formal village meeting held on May 21, 2012, at a regular meeting of the village community, Hotevilla adopted a Proclamation and Resolution directing and mandating that the Hopi Tribal Council reject Senate Bill 2109 – Navajo -Hopi Little Colorado River Rights Settlement Act of 2012 and that “failure” to honor the village directive “shall constitute gross neglect of duty as defined in the Hopi constitution and By-Laws, Article V, section 2.

This Hotevilla proclamation is consistent with the Hopi Appellate Courts Final Decision in the Village of Bacavi’s Certified Question filed in 2010 that traditional Hopi villages retain all aspects of “their inherent aboriginal sovereignty” and that those powers are “outside the scope of authority of the Hopi Tribal Council.

The discussion and approval of this village proclamation was a result of two separate village public meetings held at Hotevilla to educate its village membership on the water issue.

Public meetings were held on March 26th and April 13th, 2012.

The second public meeting on April 13th, the Hopi Tribes’ Water and Energy Team Chair-George Mase, along with Hopi Chairman Leroy Shingoitewa, made their arguments to the village in favor of the settlement agreement and “agreement in principle.” This meeting was requested by Hotevilla village with the added special condition that no outside tribal attorneys be present and that the Hopi Chairman and his Water and Energy Team present their materials in the Hopi language solely on their own.

This proclamation asserts that the village of Hotevilla has the “inherent sovereign power” to maintain and exercise its rights and powers over all matters and resources belonging to the village and asserts that these rights and powers have “never been delegated to the Hopi Tribal Council.”

The Hopi Constitution and By-Laws does in fact, specifically “admonish” that the Hopi Tribal Council “shall not sell or lease tribal properties which includes water rights.”

Despite protests from Hopi Energy and Water Team Chairman-George Mase at the public meeting who said that “we cannot walk away from this agreement”, the Hotevilla Village Board of Directors, on behalf of its traditional village membership wholly reject SB2109 and “any form of agreement intended to waive, or extinguish our rights to our sacred waters” and directs the Hopi Council to reject the bill.

The formal 3-page village proclamation by Hotevilla is titled, “HV-102-2012″ and was signed off on May 21st.

Click to download the Hotevilla Proclamation and Resolution on SB 2109 (4 pages).

About the author

Matthew Sakiestewa Gilbert is enrolled with the Hopi Tribe from the village of Upper Moencopi in northeastern Arizona. He is an associate professor of American Indian Studies & History at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

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